Review: Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu

Author: Jennifer Mathieu
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Number of Pages: 330
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Synopsis:

"Moxie girls fight back!
Vivian Carter is fed up. Fed up with her small-town Texas high school that thinks the football team can do no wrong. Fed up with sexist dress codes and hallway harassment. But most of all, Viv Carter is fed up with always following the rules.
Viv’s mom was a punk rock Riot Grrrl in the ’90s, so now Viv takes a page from her mother’s past and creates a feminist zine that she distributes anonymously to her classmates. She’s just blowing off steam, but other girls respond. Pretty soon Viv is forging friendships with other young women across the divides of cliques and popularity rankings, and she realizes that what she has started is nothing short of a girl revolution."

I was so excited when I finally picked up Moxie and overall I really enjoyed the book. 

I big part of what pulled me out of the novel was the fact that I felt pretty disconnected from what was happening in the book. I related with the parts about sexist behavior regarding certain remarks and dress code, but the part about administration disregarding everything was foreign to me. I've been out of high school for two years now but I was fortunate to go to a school where sexual harassment was taken seriously with a no tolerance policy. With that, I felt that things were pretty exaggerated until I remembered all the things I read about in the news and on various social media platforms. For me, it was a really big eye opener even though I consider myself to be pretty knowledgeable about feminist issues. I always felt that these things only happened on the streets and that school was a safe space.

The characters in this book were phenomenal. Mathieu touches upon females who don't consider themselves feminists or don't seem to be allies which I think is rarely talked about. I also loved Lucy's character and her liberal contrast in a seemingly conservative town. Even Viv and some of her interactions with her boyfriend were so refreshing. He was a guy who actually made mistakes rather than the YA male hero who is always perfect and never seems to make a mistake. 

I highly recommend picking this up and soon as you can! 

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars